Jamie Selene: Origins
by national babe
Summary: When a small child is found by Gabriel Reyes in the wreckage of a town after a Talon masscre, what will happen? Can Gabriel make space in his heart for a child, or will his new born hate for Jack leave no room for kindness. And at the Swiss base explosion? Whose side will Jamie pick? Finished here. I will make other stories around her, but they will be published as their own story.
1. chapter 1

\-- 16 years ago --

Gabriel Reyes strode through the demolished town, keeping his guard up, prepared for any form of attack. Talon spared no mercy on any who stood in their way, and this town had fallen like many others. As he crossed yet another street, he wondered why this town had been targeted, and why it needed this harsh a treatment.

He out a scoff. It didn't matter. Sooner or later they would find out, and rest assured Blackwatch would be there to deal with it personally. They always did. It's all they'd been doing since they made HIM strike commander. They'd been running around like his own pack of hunting dogs.

A scuffling sound to his left made him halt. Spinning around he readied his shot gun, preparing to level it at whoever or whatever was about to come. He winced at his actions when he saw who did come out.

A small child, only around six it seemed, slowly stepped out of the shadows, blue eyes large with fright. She was holding onto her left arm, which held several long scrapes that were bleeding lightly and covered in soot. Her tattered clothes had several cuts and scorch marks. Aside from the cuts and bruises, it was a miracle she hasn't been severely injured. The two observed each other for a long, tense moment. Finally, he broke the silence, crouching on one knee and setting his shotguns on the ground, he beckoned for her to come to him.

"C'm'ere kid. Let's see your arm there." He gruffly stated. She stayed put, not yet trusting him. With a cough, he tried again with a somewhat gentler tone. "I won't bite. I'm not the ones who did this to your town. I'm here to help." When she finally reached him, he carefully cleaned, applied anti-biotic, sprayed, and bandaged her arm. He checked over her to make sure she hasn't been hurt anywhere else. "They really got you, huh?"

She nodded. "I was in the park." Her voice was tiny from shock and fear, and she could barely get the few words out.

"Where were your parents?" He spread some cream on a small cut on her forehead.

"Home."

"And where is that?" By the time she finished telling him the address, he was satisfied that he had gotten all of her cuts. She looked up at him, a small smile forming.

"Thank you mister."

"Ah, don't bother." He stood up, picking up and holstering his shotguns. "What's your name kid?"

"Jamie." She took his outstretched hand, and the two headed off towards her home.

His stomach sank an inch or two when they eventually reached her street on the other side of town. It too had been hit just as hard as the rest of the town. He couldn't see a house fully intact, nor had they seen another living being in the wreckage. He stopped in front of seemingly, just another demolished home. She looked up at him confused, the light from the small fires causing her red-brown hair to shine like bronze.

"I thought we were going home?"

He looked at what he could of the address, and his stomach fell the rest of the way. "We are."

"Nnnno...?" She trailed off, scanning the ground for some proof that he was wrong. Her eyes caught on the shattered blue and pink bird house she had made on her birthday. She lunged forward, shouting for her parents. She started kicking when Gabriel crouched down, holding onto her tightly to keep her from running into the burning house to her certain death.

Eventually she turned around, throwing her arms around him and sobbed while he tried to comfort her. When her sobbs grew less frequent, he picked her up, holding her and walking to the pick up point as she slowly cried herself to sleep.

"I see you found someone." Moira blandly stated when he reached the hover craft. Everyone else had arrived and had been waiting for him for the past half hour.

"I found her in one of the streets." He explained, setting Jamie in a chair and making sure she was secure before heading to the cockpit. "Her home has been destroyed, she's coming with us for now." He closed the door, settling in the co-pilot chair as the real pilot looked over at him.

"You sure you know what you're doing?"

"I've been your co-pilot dozens of times."

"You know what I mean."

He remained silent. She sighed and soon they were on their way to the base.


	2. chapter 2

They spent two weeks searching for Jamie's parents, asking the few survivors of the town. When that turned up fruitless, they searched the internet for any relatives she may have, only to come empty handed again. It all seemed hopeless.

As Gabriel walked into his quarters, he found Jamie sitting at the small kitchen table, scribbling in her diary. She looked up at him as he entered, and recognised the look of guilt that washed over his face.

"They're never coming back, are they."

His shoulders slumped and he let out a defeated sigh. "No. We've done all that we can, but, they're no where to be found." He dropped his bag on the floor, walking over to his house guest who was starting to sniffle. He pulled her chair out, turning her to face him and held her as she started to cry lightly. He rubbed small circles in her back, speaking softly to her. "I'm sorry Jamie." She shifted, her tears nearing their end. "You didn't deserve this." He held her tighter, squeezing his eyes shut from guilt. "You didn't deserve any of this."

The two continued to hold each other for another minute before he realized she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He gave a small chuckle, picking her up and carrying her to his bed. Wrapping her up in his blankets, he smoothed her hair out of her face.

"I'll make sure you have a good home and family again Jamie." He stepped to the door and switched off the light, still speaking quietly. "You have my word."

Three months later, and they still hadn't found even a foster home for her, nor had they found trace of her parents. The effort had been slowly waning as she became more and more integrated into the team, with many of the women growing very attached. But no matter to whichever base he moved to for what ever mission, little Jamie stayed by his side, fighting for every moment with him.

When Gabriel returned to the base one day, Jamie, Lena, Amari, Angela, and the kid Fareeha were all clustered in the kitchen, coloring and eating snacks very enthusiastically. Jamie looked up and gave a huge gasp of joy when she saw Gabriel. Instantly she ran and wrapped herself around his legs, holding on tightly.

"You're back!" She shouted, looking up at him with her sparkling blue eyes, her hair tucked neatly into a braid that swung over her shoulder.

"Yes we are," he chuckled "and I need to be able to walk." She smiled impishly, then adjusted so she was wrapped around only one of his legs. He sighed, but reached down to lay his hand on her head as he walked over to the table. "So what have you been up to?"

Quickly she detached herself, swiping several pictures off of the table. She turned back and held one up to him. "I drew you!" She stopped by Jesse, Genji, and Moira, and handed them pictures as well.

The pictures were surprisingly well done for a 6 year old. She had even added purple and yellow dots all over Moira's, to which Moira claimed made hers the best. Jesse argued that his had his revolver and she had put Genji's shurikens in his so theirs were just as good. Gabriel only knelt down so he was eyelevel with her, smiling as he pointed to his picture.

"You made this all by yourself?" She nodded vigorously, grinning as wide as she could. "Well I think you did great kid." She leaned forward and gave him another big hug. She then ran to the others and hugged them before running back to in front of him.

"Can it go on the fridge?" She asked, basically hopping with excitement.

"I think it deserves to be on the fridge." He said, starting to stand. "Now, who wants ice cream? We deserve it."

"I DO! CHERRY!" Jamie practically shouted over Angela's and Ana's protests, while she and Fareeha started up a chant of 'cher-ry, cher-ry'.

Shenannagins like this kept happening for more five months. Everything from midnight popsicles, to eating nothing but popcorn and fast food for 3 days running, to him coming home from a mission only to find her with a short pixie hair cut. She had run about one day, pretending to be shooting everyone but Angela and Ammari. They had stayed up past bedtime watching cartoons. He snuck in doughnuts one day for breakfast and she traded the last one for a big box of small chip bags. She stashed those and traded them in for favors and treats until he found out. Soon they had a little trading empire running under Jack's very nose. He gave her piggy-back rides and she drew him pictures. He tucked her into her bed each night, promising himself as he shut her door that he would find her the right home.

He gave a small, short smile at these memories as he walked to the nurse's office. He had to explain to Angela why Mcree came back from Venezuela with a broken arm. Turning the knob he entered.

"Oh, hello Gabe!" Angela smiled, beckoning for him to come in as Jamie waved enthusiastically from on top of the counter. "Jamie here scratched herself and wanted me to put a band-aid on for her." Indeed Jamie did have a large vibrant purple band-aid on her arm, which she proudly presented.

"I'm gonna put my stickers on it!" She proclaimed, jumping off of the table.

"Oh are you now?" He smiled, setting his report file on the desk as he crouched down to be eye level with her. "How are you going to do that without getting them lopsided?"

"I'm not." He rose an eyebrow. "You're going to put them on for me!" She giggled and poked him in the arm. He smiled in return, ruffling her hair.

"Well, you go get ready. I need to speak with Angela here."

She hugged him, threw open the door, and skipped down the hall to their quarters.

"She really adores you."

The smile slid off his face. He had been thinking of that. He wondered why Jamie had gotten so closely attached to him in particular.

"Gabriel? Is everything alright?" Angela asked, concerned.

He shook his head. "Nah, it's nothing." Angela didn't look too convinced. "How is Mcree?"

It was only a week later that he understood her attachment. He had just entered their quarters, planning on the two of them watching cartoons as they ate dinner and stayed up too late again. As soon as the door closed he heard a tumbling sound and his Jamie shouting in pain, cutting him off before he could call hello. Dropping dinner on the counter, he sprinted to where Jamie had fallen down the stairs, curled up in a ball.

Gently he picked her up and set her in his lap. He started rubbing her back as she started crying, holding onto her bleeding knee.

"D-dad?" She quietly squeaked between tears.

He almost said 'no. Wrong dude.' like he would have done for any one else. Instead he found himself muttering "Don't worry Jamie I'm - dad's, here."

She sniffed. "Thanks." She muttered softly.

He continued calming her down until her tears dried. He picked her up and effortlessly carried her into the bathroom where he started washing the scrape. Internally his mind was in a wreck, wondering how on earth he had ended up becoming a dad. He would have sooner expected Jack, goodness, even Mcree to become one before he ever did.

He pushed his dilemma aside. Time enough for that later. He opened the mirror cabinet and pulled out the first aid kit.

"Hey," he pulled out the sanitizing spray "do you remember what I've told you about first aid?" She nodded. "What do you do first?"

"Clean the wound."

Slowly they went through the process of bandaging her knee, with her listing out the steps one by one. Finally, the large blue band aid was plastered on and Gabriel finally got to enjoy his chicken fajitas.

 _Sorry for the horribly long wait!_


	3. chapter 3

As of course you know, the already declining good times couldn't last. As the tensions grew between Gabriel and Jack, Gabe kept Jamie closer to himself than ever. She either followed him to every mission or he sent her to stay with Gerard. Soon even that wasn't a possibility as 'Uncle' Gerard was murdered and 'Auntie' Amelie was missing. The little seven year old still drew pictures for them, keeping them in a bag which she promised to give when she found her Auntie.

Jamie mostly spent her time trying to cheer up the members of overwatch. She didn't understand why everyone seemed so sad and moody. Grandma Amari, Genji, Jesse, and Auntie Moira had all left for missions seemingly over night, and still weren't back yet. Perhaps that was why everyone was so tense.

Another year passed, marking the 2nd year she had spent with overwatch and her new found father. Gabriel and she had planned on spending the weekend celebrating her 8th birthday at the Swiss headquarters.

But this is the sad twist in the story.

Jamie was packing her backpack and small suitcase while planning what color icing she wanted. She couldn't decide if she wanted blue or red.

Blue and red?

Maybe just purple.

Grabbing her bag of pictures and crayons she hopped down the stairs. She swiped her father's forgotten favorite hat and sprinted out the door and down the hall. She clambered into the small airplane with Grandpa Rein and Miss Angela. Jamie spent the entire time staring out the window, not paying attention to Angela and Reinhardt each entering the cockpit and coming back out with grim and worried expressions. She missed their worried glances and quiet muttering. She couldn't wait to see Dad.

Angela eventually gathered the courage and sat down next to Jamie.

"Jamie," she began softly.

She looked around, her swaying in its short ponytail. She grinned up at Angela, her blue eyes sparkling.

"Are we almost there?"

Angela forced a smile. "Yes, but there has been a problem at the base." Jamie's smile faded a little.

"A, problem?"

Angela rushed to reassure her. "Don't worry, I'm sure Gabriel is fine! We're just having trouble finding him at the moment." The smile was completely replaced by a look of worry and Angela wanted to smack herself in the face. Jamie turned away from Angela, once again looking out the window.

They had to land a few miles away and quickly drove to the ruins. Jamie followed Angela, having abandoned her bags at the plane, as she jumped off and rushed to Tracer. Lena was covered in soot and was panting heavily.

"Lena!" Angela gave the cadet her shoulder to lean on as Tracer recaught her breath. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but I haven't been able to find either commander. We've been searching for two hours now!"

Before either woman could react, Jamie bolted, tearing through the wreckage searching frantically for her father.

Gabriel slowly regained consciousness. He immediately wished he hadn't as his body seared with pain. He tried to open his eyes, but couldn't see under the rubble he was buried under.

'How am I alive?' He wondered.

He imagined his Jamie calling for him from the surface. Without being conscious of his actions, he started crawling toward the surface through layers of rubble.

"You lost her!?"

"She took off without warning!"

"Oxton, she's 8 and this place is in shambles!"

"Why do you think I'm out here searching?!" Lena forcefully switched of comms with the veteran and continued searching. She'd regret being so short with him but for the time being, finding Jamie and the others was top priority.

Jamie continued running and calling for her father, her energy waning quickly. Soon she collapsed near another pile of rubble. She brought her knees to her chest and started shaking, terrified of losing her father. She pulled his cap out of her pocket, cradling it for comfort. Slowly, she shakily pushed herself to her feet, stumbling along to find him.

Nearby, a mist like hand emerged from a pile of rubble. As it came into contact with the air it solidified, and started to pull the rest of itself out. The ghastly form fought to be free of the rubble, some internal determination keeping it from surrendering to the pain.

Finally it fell on the ground breathing heavily, regaining some strength. After a minute it pushed itself up onto its hands, turning around to observe the untouched pile it had emerged from. It stared down at its hand, watching it shift into mist and back into a solid form.

"What have I become?" Gabriel Reyes muttered.


	4. last chapter

Jamie turned a corner, half walking half stumbling along. She had finally realized she shouldn't have come in by herself, but she still pressed forward. Turning a corner she bumped into someone. She let out a startled yelp at the sudden contact and fell backwards. Looking up, she looked into the face of her father.

It was a horrible sight. He was covered in drying blood, his clothes were in tatters, and he moved with great pain. He had a black eye and several small cuts on his face. Even as she watched, the cuts and bruises were healing themselves, leaving behind scars. He was hunched over, arms wrapped around his torso, and was barely able to stay upright. He had to keep shifting his footing to keep from falling over.

He stared down at his daughter.

"Jamie?" His voice rasped out, and he fell to his knees in fromt of her.

"Dad!" She lunged forward and threw her arms around him, not caring for his current condition. They clung to each other tightly, both shaking from the events. They would have remained there for longer, but the sounds of the others calling for Jamie stirred Gabriel into action. He picked Jamie up, and began staggering away from the Overwatch members. He wouldn't let either of them fall into their hands ever again. He silently vowed right then to destroy any surviving members for what they'd done to him.

Jamie picked her head up off of his shoulder.

"Where are we going?" She asked, bleary eyed.

"I don't know yet sweetie, but we will go as far away from here as we can." She nodded and buried her face back into his shoulder.

At last he reached the edge of the ruins. The members had all abandoned the car that they had driven in to search for them. He dashed over, flinging open the door and setting Jamie inside before sitting in the driver's seat and starting the car.

"How did you get here from America?" He asked, turning the vehicle around. He spotted the tracks that it had made when it arrived and began following them.

"We flew in the plane." She helpfully pointed down the direction they were already headed. Soon they reached the small airplane and Jamie clambered inside, sitting co-pilot.

As they flew away, Gabriel could have sworn he saw the form of a broken man with white blonde hair standing where they had taken off.

They spent two months on their own. Gabriel's money ran out in the first month and Jamie had been forced to leave her suitcase behind. Now she kept what she could inside her backpack that Gabe carried most often. He started doing odd jobs for stores and restaurants to provide cash for food.

Jamie never questioned him or his actions. She had asked why he was mad at Overwatch, and he only said that they had betrayed him, and that he wanted to keep her safe. She only nodded and they had kept walking.

One night they sat down, Jamie curled in a sleeping bag as Gabe leaned against the wall of a building.

"Dad?" He looked over at her and hated how she had such large bags under her eyes, how thin her frame was. How her hair had lost its shine and her eyes were dulled. He hated that he had brought this on her. He should have given her the choice to stay with one of the Overwatch members. Anger flared in his stomach at the idea, but the condition of his daughter was was overriding his hatred.

He knew what he would have to do to get his revenge. He would go in a heart beat if it wasn't for his little girl.

How could he justify taking her with him to that place, to be raised among those people.

"What is it sweetie?" He asked gently.

"You're going to join them, aren't you."

He hesitated. "Join who?"

"The ones you were fighting with Overwatch. The ones who - who destroyed - my -" she looked on the edge of tears as she gazed up at her father, unable to bring up her old home.

"Talon." She nodded vigorously. He sighed, looking down. "Yes." He looked back at her. "It would be safest to for you to stay with someone else. Maybe Angela-"

He was cut off as she suddenly hugged him, crying in earnest. He held her and she muttered "I won't leave you Daddy, I won't!"

He held her and felt tears of his own hot on his face. He had brought her with him, and had condemned her to a life among criminals, but he'd sooner die than let them have her.

He'd protect her until one of them died, and it seemed he couldn't.


End file.
